large format equipment for landscape - weight, why 35 is not enough resolution, digitizing, Sinar F1

[dave_carter]

I would strongly recommend to attend a Danny Burk workshop. It will give you a very good introduction to LF. He has a beginners workshop in October in the Smokies with an opening. I have done it and it was very worth wile as an intro. I think his site is: www.dannyburk.com

[johndc]

Man, it must be nice to have money.

 

p.s. count another vote for the Shen-Hao.

[michael_briggs2]

One thing to realize is that the scale of closeups is different in 35 mm and 4x5. For example, a 4x5 flower scence is about 1:4 in 35 mm but is 1:1 in 4x5 photography. DOF becomes small and one must stop down, thereby increasing exposure times. Outdoors, subject motion might become a problem, unless one uses flash. My LF closeups have all been indoors where long exposures aren't a problem because there is no wind. Perhaps using a rollfilm back might be a good compromise for the flower closeups. You can use wider stops and shorter exposures times.

 

When doing closeups with an LF camera, you will also need to calculate the exposure compensation for the extension of the lens from the film. Cameras with through-the-lens meters do this automatically.

 

You can figure out what magnifications are possible for a given focal length lens and camera with its maximum extension from the equations near the top of the Lens Tutorial: http://www.photo.net/photo/optics/lensTutorial . For example, to go to 1:1 with a 150 mm lens, you need a camera with 300 mm of extension.

[Jochen_S]

I'm a unexperienced press operator. Our conventional screening is 60l/cm (aprox. 150lpi) According to the rules of the craft I learned at school it is allowed to multiply this by squareroot of 2 for quality. Doubling the scann result pixels again seems a bit quality obsessed to me, as long as you use a good scanner and no cheap flatbed.

 

As far as I remember there has been a Linhof Technika 6x9cm, folding, tilting, shifting. Maybe there are carbon fibre clones around.

 

I can't say much about the weight issues. Sorry, I don't carry my own M like the Swiss armyknife - it's too heavy and mountains worth hiking are too far away.

 

If the Arca Swiss you mention seems O.K. for your hiking, get a ground glass, hood and rollholder to expose cheap film with it. Shooting slides for scanning, you maybe could afford less precission than offered by the Arc Swiss in in the field. True LF might be more comfortable than rollfilm view cameras, but if you want color it's extremely expensive.

[david_senesac]

Stephen H >>>"You know, now that I think about, after hiking all over RMNP, I don't believe I've ever seen anyone out any distance on a trail with LF equipment- few even bring a tripod. I'm sure it's been done, but very few people with that kind of gear want to tote it 20 miles."

 

I've been a Sierra backpacking photographer since 1980 getting several backpacks in each year to the backcountry. And I have rarely even seen tripods. Much less medium format and almost never large format. However I have noticed increasing numbers of tripods on the sides of backpacks this last decade. And in the last five years many many more cameras simply due to all the tiny digitals. The surprising reality is very very few large format color photographers of the last few decades have wondered very far beyond roads.

 

...David

www.davidsenesac.com

[d_g]

If you do decide to go to large format I suggest 5x7 because of lense options ... NO MORE

C41 FILM IN THAT SIZE !!!

If money is no concern, then the Arca swiss misura is the best compromise...

compact, light, allowed all movements...

Forget sinar for your use ...

You can also buy a second hand Linhof technika V, but this is a box and sometimes you

are limited with movements (with wide angles lens...).

Sometimes i use my technika, but 95% of the time i'm going out with my arca (fLine 45

compact), at the end, they both fit in the same backpack !

With the arca i can use lenses as short as 55mm... but i need two bellows...

[giidii]

Hello,

<br />

Thanks for all your advice - it's overwhelming!

<p>I'm still studying - I don't know yet what film format is best from a price perspective.

<p>When searching for Arca, I found the

<p>Arca Swiss Misura? 9x12-4"x5" Monorail "Field" View Camera

<p>which weights only 2kg and costs "only" about $4000.

<p>It's claimed to be "the most compact and lightest system monorail

camera on the market."

<br />Here is a link to a <a href="http://www.galerie-photo.com/arca-swiss-misura-us.html">review

of the Misura</a> at galerie-photo.com

<p>

best, G. Dii

[cxc]

The Gowland is the way to go for small and light. I must disagree with the comment that they are floppy; they screw down tight as a drum. The main disadvantages are two: 1) there are no helping indications for squaring it up in the first place, 2) the thing is very fussy to work with, given 1) above, and the combo rise/tilt front knob.

 

If you are willing to take the body of the camera off the rail to pack it up, and to switch from horizontal to vertical orientation, then it really does pack down to very little space. The Toho is also a good choice for these factors. My Gowland from ePay arrived in a little tupperware container, no more than 4" high!

 

On the other hand, I haven't used any of my 4x5 monorails since the day I got a high quality field camera (Walker). They are just superior tools for transporting in a backpack.

[jcolwell]

My first LF camera is a Shen Hao 4x5 which arrived two weeks ago. My first LF lens is a Fujinon-SW 90mm f/8 (Seiko shutter, single coated) which arrived this past week, and a Fujinon-W 150mm f/5.6 EBC (Copal shutter, multi-coated) should arrive soon. I figure that my Canon EOS 20D with 300mm f/4 L IS will serve as a good spot meter (can you think of a better example of the new serving the old?). Good luck to both of us.